Israel does not intend to react to European group's settlement boycott paper

Israel said on Wednesday that it would not respond to a European think tank's recommendation to the EU to move much more firmly to distinguish its dealings with Israel from Israel's activities in the West Bank.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Alov Lavi stressed that the proposals are coming from a European think tank, and not from the European Union.

“We have no intention to respond to a research paper from one research institute or another,” Lavi said.

The web-site of the European Council of Foreign Relations lists under its experts category three people who deal with Israel, one of whom is Dimi Reider, who writes as well for the hard left +972 blog. Left wing analyst Daniel Levy, one of the founders of J Street, is also a part of this think tank.

This is not the first time that organization has published a paper calling on the EU to take a more confrontational stance toward Israel, doing so as well in a report in 2013.

That report called on the EU to exempt settlement goods from trade agreements, have no contact with Ariel University, issue advice to European business and investors against doing business in the settlements, removing tax advantages for financial support to settlements, and imposing visa requirements on settlers.